The operator of a boutique western Victoria meatworks has said cooking shows are clearly affecting food choices.
Koallah Farms Steven Castle has been operating the small abattoir, at Lake Purrumbete, near Colac, for about 18 months.
He has a throughput of between 100-120 sheep, cattle, pigs, goat, deer and even llama and alpaca a week.
When there is a bit of a run on some abnormal cuts, brisket is a good one, or beef cheeks, or pork jowls, it will have been on MasterChef, or My Kitchen Rules, and sales will go up pretty sharply, Mr Castle said.
One of the big challenges with meat is the consumption of the whole animal from a beef point of view, you are probably only talking about 17 or 18 per cent of the animal is eye fillet, or your porterhouse, your scotch, your rump.
Well theres 80-85 per cent of the animal you still have to consume.
Koallah has its own shops, in Mount Waverley and Rosanna, sells online and supplies the food service industry.
We are big on educating the customer there is plenty of good stuff, which might not always be the most popular meat, out there, he said.
An expectation has been created that we can get what we want, whenever we want it, in endless volumes - with meat that has created a real issue, the reality is, there is only so much porterhouse and so much scotch.
He said the family was passionate about traditional, sustainable farming practices and the benefits respectful animal husbandry delivered to consumers.
After operating an on-farm boning room for a few years, and dealing with third-party processors, it became evident to us that there was a real need for a more service-focused abattoir in the industry, Mr Castle said.
Mr Castle said the abattoir was also set up as part of a succession plan, with Koallah initially running four dairy farms.
My father has been milking cows for most of his adult life and we appreciate the landholdings family have, he said.
Whilst none of us were directly working on the farms, we wanted to make sure the farms would continue to be viable, and dad certainly doesnt want to milk cows forever.
Its more of a succession plan, to help us continue to run the land, but in an alternate way.
The establishment of the full scale abattoir with components imported from New Zealand - followed the establishment of a boning room, on the property, with stock initially being slaughtered at Midland Meats, Warrnambool.
The $1.4million works was completed in October, 2014, with a pork and goat processing line established in April, last year.
We are slowly starting to migrate out of the dairy on some of our properties and expand the beef herd, so more and more, we can supply our own beef.
Koallah farms was made up of 384 hectares around the banks of the lake, in south west Victoria.
The property was used for beef breeding, lamb fattening and production of 1.4 million litres of milk a year, from a 230 head dairy herd.
Koallah was processing animals from as far away at Leongatha and Portland, with the meat produced being sold at farmers markets or used for private consumption.
I would not necessarily be saying its an easy or profitable way to do business; it will take a few years to align our processes and the areas we want to focus upon, Mr Castle said.
But we are keen to help people find markets for their own products, or are willing to put the effort into finding markets.
